


The Cat Came Back

by TurquoiseDragon



Category: Wicked - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Modern AU, there are cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 20:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17988026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurquoiseDragon/pseuds/TurquoiseDragon
Summary: Somehow, a cat was in her apartment, and Galinda wasn't sure where it had come from.





	The Cat Came Back

Galinda was sure she was hallucinating. She had to be. But, even after she rubbed her eyes once more, it was still there, sitting on her bed. 

‘It’ was a cat, which was small, white, and sprawled across Galinda’s bed like it owned the place. That wasn’t a problem, Galinda had always had a soft spot for cats. The problem was that Galinda didn’t have a cat. 

She was too tired to really worry about it. Sighing, she went over and sat down next to it, holding out a hand for it to sniff. She smiled as the cat started to rub its face against her hand. She started to pet it, and soon the cat was purring. 

“At least you’re friendly,” she murmured, “We’ll figure out where you came from in the morning.” 

She soon went to bed, the cat happily curled up right next to her and purring softly. 

She was once again startled to find that the cat wasn’t there when she woke up in the morning. 

She sprung out of bed, searching around her house to see if it had just gone somewhere else, but the cat was nowhere to be found. 

“I was so sure it was real…” 

Deciding to just try to forget the whole incident, she shrugged it off and got ready for work. 

The first thing she noticed when she arrived home afterward was that the cat had come back. 

“You were real!” 

The cat just stared. 

Galinda hung up her coat and the cat trotted over, standing up and leaning with its front paws on her leg. She scratched it behind the ears. 

“What are you doing here? And how have you been getting in?”

The cat pawed at her leg again and she picked it up. This clearly made it happy and it started to pur. 

She really was unsure how it had gotten in. It was clearly very well taken care of, and its fur felt clean, so it hadn’t been outside. And even if it had, she lived on the seventh floor of her apartment building and always kept her windows closed. She set the cat down and got ready for bed. 

“You’re just a little mystery, aren’t you?” 

The cat meowed contentedly from its spot on her pillow. 

Unsurprisingly, the cat was gone when she woke up. 

She found herself wondering about it throughout her work day. It couldn’t have come in the windows or the door. Maybe it had just phased through the wall like a little ghost. She laughed to herself. ‘Ghost’ would be a perfect name for the little cat, so she decided she would call it just that. 

"Hello, Ghost,” she called upon entering her apartment, receiving a soft ‘mrrrp’ in response. 

She smiled and tossed it a catnip toy she had bought on the way home. 

They played for a while, and she went to sleep as usual with Ghost curled up by her side. When she woke the next morning, she was surprised to find that Ghost had stayed. 

“You’re still here!”

The cat rolled over and stretched. 

“So it was gifts you wanted?”

The cat yawned and Galinda scratched it behind the ears. She sat with it for a bit longer before getting up, not wanting to be late. 

She set out some water and tuna, and then tossed the toy over to the cat again as she went out the door. Ghost pounced and she laughed. She was really starting to like having a cat around. 

On her way out, she saw her neighbor in the hallway. She didn’t know much about her neighbor, only that her name was Elphaba Thropp. They had crossed paths a few times, never really getting the chance to get to know each other. Galinda didn’t deny that she thought Elphaba was cute, or that the time they had brushed hands while going to press the elevator button had made her heart flutter just a little, but she just didn’t think this was something she could pursue. 

She noticed that Elphaba seemed worried about something. Elphaba was walking quickly through the hallway of their floor, checking behind the decorative potted plants and sitting areas. 

“Are you looking for something?” Galinda called. 

“Don’t worry about it,” came the reply as Elphaba ducked down by one of the chairs. 

Galinda shrugged, realizing she would have to hurry if she didn’t want to be late for work. She started to head toward the elevators, hearing a soft “Malky, where are you!” behind her. 

She wondered what a Malky was, but didn’t feel like she had time to ask. Elphaba seemed busy anyway.

When she came back, Elphaba was nowhere to be seen and neither was Ghost. She hoped that Elphaba had found whatever it is she was looking for and that Ghost was somewhere safe, or maybe at its own home for once. She went to sleep with more difficulty than the past days, finding that she missed her little Ghost. 

When she woke up, the cat still wasn’t there. She wondered if maybe she should just get her own cat. Since she didn’t have work that day, she decided that maybe a trip to the nearby animal shelter was in order. 

She got ready and left her apartment, and as she was locking her door she heard the squeak of another door opening. 

Realizing it was Elphaba, she smiled.

“Did you ever find what you were looking for?”

“I did. He came back later that day.”

“That’s good news,” Galinda replied. 

But before she could ask who he was, a little white blur darted out from Elphaba’s door, putting its paws up on her legs to ask for pets when it reached her. 

“Ghost!”

She dropped down to the floor to pet him.

“Is he your cat?” 

“Yes, that’s who I was looking for yesterday. He’s been disappearing lately. And his name is Malky, not Ghost.”

So that’s what a Malky was. 

“He’s been getting into my apartment somehow. He shows up almost every night,” Galinda told her. 

“I’m so sorry for the trouble, I-”

“It’s no trouble! He’s an absolute sweetheart! I’m just wondering how he got in.” 

Malky offered no explanation, running back and forth between Elphaba and Galinda as though it were the most exciting thing in the world to have them both in the same room. 

“Maybe we could try to figure it out?” Elphaba suggested. 

“That’s a good idea, but how?”

Galinda scooped Malky up and passed him over to Elphaba. 

“We could watch him and see if he does anything.” 

Galinda agreed, and the two exchanged numbers, going back into their own apartments. It wasn’t long before Elphaba texted her. 

Elphaba: He just crawled into the vent in my bathroom. 

Galinda got up, going over to her own bathroom. Sure enough, the cat hopped through the vent not long after, accompanied by a few echoing noises. 

Galinda: He’s here now. Are you missing the cover on your vent too?

Elphaba: I’ll come get him. And I am. The landlord still hasn’t come to replace it. 

Galinda: Same here. Maybe we should just do it ourselves. Who knows what else could get in through those vents. 

Elphaba: Right. 

Galinda brought Malky back over, but this time she and Elphaba started to talk for real. Malky was a very lovable cat, they both agreed on that, so it seemed to them that it would be a good idea to let Galinda visit after their vent covers had been replaced. This was something they did together the very same day. Luckily, Elphaba owned a screwdriver, which Galinda did not. 

Since the vent covers were replaced, Malky no longer snuck through them, but still got to visit with Galinda on the once per week schedule she and Elphaba had worked out. Slowly, though, the once per week schedule turned into a few times per week. None of them minded. 

Galinda told Elphaba of her plans to adopt a cat of her own, and soon the two of them had started going to shelters together. Galinda picked out an adorable tuxedo kitten, whom she named Ozma. 

Ozma and Malky were fast friends, just as Galinda and Elphaba had been. Since the cats were content to play together, they weren’t upset when Galinda and Elphaba paid more attention to each other whenever they got together. 

Malky and Ozma were just happy that their people were happy, although the cats never did understand the appeal of holding hands.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought! 
> 
> My tumblr for wicked is thewickedworkingsofyouknowwho


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